Among the small and elite group of American artists referred to by Time magazine as The Irascibles, and who made up the groundbreaking movement known as Abstract Expressionism in the 1940s and 1950s, Clyfford Still was arguably the most irascible and vociferous. Among a generation of American artists who were attuned and sensitive to the potential commercial and political exploitation of their art, Still was undoubtedly the most suspicious of institutional culture. He had little need for “middle men” to present his art and ideas. As a result, critics, curators, and private...